Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => Politics => Topic started by: makattak on April 19, 2017, 10:38:15 AM
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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-oil-tankers-insight-idUSKBN17K0CE
Venezuelan oil tankers have to be delayed for up to 10 days while they are cleaned of the leaking crude in Venezuela's ports. Which delay, of course, the state-owned company cannot afford.
And, of course, here's the relevant statement buried in the story:
When oil prices were high, crude and fuel exports almost entirely financed an elaborate system of government price controls and social subsidies that maintained the popularity of late President Hugo Chavez, the socialist firebrand.
He used the oil profits to pay for his "socialist utopia" and let the infrastructure to support oil drilling and delivery collapse.
Now, when the inevitable downturn has happened (that Chavez missed by going to hell before it occurred), there is no money to fix the crumbling infrastructure, which causes the country to see not only dropping prices, but dropping exports because they can't deliver what they once did.
Hey, what's that? It's the gods of the copybook headings returning to Venezuela? Shocking.
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Communism.....Is there anything it can't drag down?
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Communism.....Is there anything it can't drag down?
Gee, I'm glad we're starting to call it what it is again.
I'm tired of hearing carefully polished glossy words for it.
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Gee, I'm glad we're starting to call it what it is again.
I'm tired of hearing carefully polished glossy words for it.
Communism probably was a glossy word itself back in the Pre-Stalin days. After millions of dead people, it picked up some bad associations.
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^ Good point, but I'm talkin' post-McCarthy era. His excesses made pointing out Communism for what it was "paranoia."
I'm no fan of what HUAC* did, but the original investigations into how deeply actual Communists had penetrated our culture would have been helpful had it gone in a less hysterical direction.
Hey, you want to be a Communist, that's okay with me if you're out in the open about it, but to "penetrate" our government and other institutions (like our entertainment industry, f'r instance) in a clandestine manner for subversive purposes is not, at least in my view. I don't even mind having the Communist Party on the ballot, if clearly labeled as such and their platform/agenda is truly open for public analysis.**
After all, you only have to be sneaky if you know your ultimate goals would not be acceptable to the population at large and you have to work "under the table."
I know my position is deplorable, but you sure as hell can't call it Fascist.
Terry, 230RN
* House Unamerican Activities Committee
** And if their "hangers-on" and "fellow travelers" are also fully aware of the totalitarian implications of their stance. But they aren't. Which is why they were characterized as... you guessed it... "useful idiots."
NOTE: Note the "sub" in "subversive."
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/subversive#Etymology
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Unfortunately the situation was set years ago by Chavez outspending oil revenue while not keeping up on infrastructure maintenance.
Before anyone gets too smug, remember that the US is outspending it's revenue at Banana Republic pace while vastly underspending on infrastructure maintenance. We admittedly have C's across the board rather than F's, but still. Oddly enough, we're vastly overspending on social programs and corrupt military programs.
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. . . Oddly enough, we're vastly overspending on social programs and corrupt military programs.
LBJ's "Great Society" spending total is fairly close to our total national debt - since 2012, welfare spending (which does NOT include Social Security payments!) had exceeded $1,000,000,000,000.00 annually.
This is considerably more than the DoD budget . . . which I agree is rife with corruption and pork.
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LBJ's "Great Society" spending total is fairly close to our total national debt - since 2012, welfare spending (which does NOT include Social Security payments!) had exceeded $1,000,000,000,000.00 annually.
This is considerably more than the DoD budget . . . which I agree is rife with corruption and pork.
I don't disagree. I know the DoD budget is a punching bag. But large parts of that criticism is warranted.
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Kekonomics:
https://www.google.com/amp/www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/03/27/venezuelans-using-rare-pepes-bitcoin-currency/amp/
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"and let the infrastructure to support oil drilling and delivery collapse."
WRONG!
The gringo capitalist rapists of the people sprayed poison on the magical money trees and destroyed the perpetual harvest of FREE *expletive deleted*it! It was nothing short of an act of war against the peace loving people of Venezuela!
Or, that's what Nicholas Maduro would have us believe while he and the rest of the Chavez cadre siphon off a large portion of the free *expletive deleted*it tree money and send it overseas into their personal accounts.
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Oops, looks like Maduro has decided to pluck more fruit from the magical money tree!
I wonder how they expect to keep manufacturing cars when GM cancels all of the supplier contracts they had to provide stuff to that facility? Ah, who cares... FREEEEEEE SHITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!
https://www.dailysabah.com/automotive/2017/04/20/general-motors-auto-plant-in-venezuela-seized-by-government-gm-decries-illegality
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Oops, looks like Maduro has decided to pluck more fruit from the magical money tree!
I wonder how they expect to keep manufacturing cars when GM cancels all of the supplier contracts they had to provide stuff to that facility? Ah, who cares... FREEEEEEE SHITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!
https://www.dailysabah.com/automotive/2017/04/20/general-motors-auto-plant-in-venezuela-seized-by-government-gm-decries-illegality
Makes you wonder what it would take to rig a plant to burn to the ground. Some companies are already writing of their Venezualian investments. Might as well burn it down on the way out.....
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I was just about to post about GM. I was genuinely surprised that they still had a plant in Venezuela. I thought all the smart big US money pulled out after Chavez confiscated 100s of millions in oil production infrastructure.
Any other big US corporation still have a Venezuelan presence?
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Well it is government motors after all...
If it were my car company, I would have closed it down for a day for a 'holiday' and ordered management to shred and purge all important materials, then slag all of the machine tools with thermite right before putting them all on a bus to the airport for exfil.
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Well it is government motors after all...
If it were my car company, I would have closed it down for a day for a 'holiday' and ordered management to shred and purge all important materials, then slag all of the machine tools with thermite right before putting them all on a bus to the airport for exfil.
Too flashy. Grabby Venezuelan government would probably arrest them as "saboteurs" before they got off the ground.
Keep your people in mind and subtly sabotage the equipment.
Or not at all. It's not like competent people will be operating them and the equipment will suffer the same fate as the oil infrastructure in short order.
Pull all expertise from the country. That's a far more effective means of ensuring their demise.
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Well it is government motors after all...
I was actually wondering if there was possibly a "suggestion" for them to stay there given the past administration's milquetoast approach to Venezuela.
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Too flashy. Grabby Venezuelan government would probably arrest them as "saboteurs" before they got off the ground.
Keep your people in mind and subtly sabotage the equipment.
Or not at all. It's not like competent people will be operating them and the equipment will suffer the same fate as the oil infrastructure in short order.
Pull all expertise from the country. That's a far more effective means of ensuring their demise.
True- entropy + incompetence will do the same thing over time
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True- entropy + incompetence will do the same thing over time
Sometimes flashy makes the point more satisfyingly however.
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Wyatt's Torch... just sayin'
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Wyatt's Torch... just sayin'
Who is Amy Schumer?
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Who is Amy Schumer?
A fat no talent hack of a failed comedian. And oh yeah, I think some TV chick is named that too. >:D
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Reference missed.
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Outside joke. Outside as in outhouse.
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It's Trumps fault now.
http://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2017/04/21/hottest-hot-take-ever-rachel-maddows-scoop-about-unrest-in-venezuela-is-too-insane-for-words/
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I wonder how they expect to keep manufacturing cars when GM cancels all of the supplier contracts they had to provide stuff to that facility?
How much of the automated equipment is dependent on code stored on GM servers outside Venezuela?
If they were smart, everything more networkable than a stapler could be rendered useless from anywhere in the world.
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I was just about to post about GM. I was genuinely surprised that they still had a plant in Venezuela. I thought all the smart big US money pulled out after Chavez confiscated 100s of millions in oil production infrastructure.
Any other big US corporation still have a Venezuelan presence?
You're probably not alone. From the article:
Shares of General Motors Co. rose slightly in premarket trading.
It's rather instructive when your entire operation is stolen but your stock goes UP as a result ...
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If they were smart, everything more networkable than a stapler could be rendered useless from anywhere in the world.
For some reason this kicked my gigglebox right off the cliff. And yet.... Someone somewhere has networked a stapler. You just know it's happened.
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How much of the automated equipment is dependent on code stored on GM servers outside Venezuela?
If they were smart, everything more networkable than a stapler could be rendered useless from anywhere in the world.
While I tend to agree with the philosophy, the big problem with that is that if they can do it from "corporate" a hacker can do it from bumfukistan.
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While I tend to agree with the philosophy, the big problem with that is that if they can do it from "corporate" a hacker can do it from bumfukistan.
Which is why I like driving older vehicles that don't have On-Star and can't be remotely disabled by much less than a .357 magnum through the engine block from a hovering helicopter.
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From what I've read, this GM plant hasn't actually produced a car since 2015. GM still has dealers or garages there that employ about 3900 people - since GM is "leaving" Venezuela, my guess is those people are (or soon will be) unemployed.
Kimberly-Clarke lost a plant to Venezuelan confiscation a while back - but it was out of production anyway since raw materials were unavailable. No word on what happened to it or the employees after the plant was seized.
Seems that small businesses haven't been immune either - read a week or two back that bakeries were being seized if they were making too many biscuits and croissants and not enough bread . . . in the eyes of the bureaucrats.
No word on whether or not they're making bread or continuing to employ the bakers now that the government "owns" them.
Ah, the glory of Socialism, which replaces Capitalism's income inequality with a more widespread distribution of misery . . .
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For some reason this kicked my gigglebox right off the cliff. And yet.... Someone somewhere has networked a stapler. You just know it's happened.
Don't some of the fancier photocopiers have automatic stapling functions? Those are probably networked...
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From what I've read, this GM plant hasn't actually produced a car since 2015. GM still has dealers or garages there that employ about 3900 people - since GM is "leaving" Venezuela, my guess is those people are (or soon will be) unemployed.
Kimberly-Clarke lost a plant to Venezuelan confiscation a while back - but it was out of production anyway since raw materials were unavailable. No word on what happened to it or the employees after the plant was seized.
Seems that small businesses haven't been immune either - read a week or two back that bakeries were being seized if they were making too many biscuits and croissants and not enough bread . . . in the eyes of the bureaucrats.
No word on whether or not they're making bread or continuing to employ the bakers now that the government "owns" them.
Ah, the glory of Socialism, which replaces Capitalism's income inequality with a more widespread distribution of misery . . .
I thought that Maduro confiscated all the bakeries because they weren't producing enough bread, or giving it all away for free, or charging too much or somesuch that displeased the powers that be in the name of the people.
Ahh... I stand corrected. They haven't seized all the bakeries.....yet.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article138964428.html
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Ahh... I stand corrected. They haven't seized all the bakeries.....yet.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article138964428.html
The government said bakeries are only allowed to produce French bread and white loaves, or pan canilla, with government-imported flour.
What? No gay wedding cakes?
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How much of the automated equipment is dependent on code stored on GM servers outside Venezuela?
If they were smart, everything more networkable than a stapler could be rendered useless from anywhere in the world.
Probably most, if not all of it.
And, I heard the other day that, while GM is protesting Maduro's action strongly, they realistically probably don't give a crap because the Venezuelan plan has been losing money for years, so the Venezuelans were basically seizing a worthless asset and losing what little income was actually being derived from it.
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Looks like GM has more compassion for their Venezuelan employees than Maduro has...
GM fired them, but paid them severance.
http://www.mlive.com/news/us-world/index.ssf/2017/04/gm_fires_2700_venezuela-based.html
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I wonder if it was enough to buy a loaf of bread.....
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I wonder if it was enough to buy a loaf of bread.....
Apparently not. They were being paid a pittance because the company wasn't able to produce anything because of, well, Socialism.
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Yea, Socialism.
GM hadn't made a car at the plant in Valencia, Venezuela since 2015, and automakers only made 2,849 cars in the country in 2016 altogether, a drastic drop from the 172,218 made in 2007.
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While I tend to agree with the philosophy, the big problem with that is that if they can do it from "corporate" a hacker can do it from bumfukistan.
Not necessarily; just need to make it so that it requires some sort of "we are happy" signal, and/or regular updates. If done right, that could even be in the form of a mailed flash drive if the network is gone. Make them one-shot 14 day codes, and you'll always have time to FedEx another reactivation in time if needed, while also being sure the seizing government has nothing but a pile of scrap within a month.
Maybe not a bad idea on any such equipment that's kept in or transported through places where there's a high risk of it being stolen, anyway; if no other potential buyer can use it, then the only possibly profitable option is selling it back to you, which is high risk compared to finding an unreputable buyer.
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While I tend to agree with the philosophy, the big problem with that is that if they can do it from "corporate" a hacker can do it from bumfukistan.
Eh. Yes, but in practice it's fairly common. Most things in the corporate world with a password is centrally managed. If a company is using Windows, it's called Active Directory. You can just right click on any PC or account and hit "disable". If it's not hooked up to the network, it won't receive that command. But if it is, and it usually is except for remote users, instant disables. Kerberus (the under the hood part of AD) is pretty secure, as it's essentially the holy grail of things you would want to hack. There's been exploits in the past, but if you keep up on your patching, it's good enough security when balanced against operational requirements.
Way it works in practice is that each sub-entity gets its own domain. The Venezelian sysadmins can do stuff on that domain. But they can't do anything to the forest that has control over it. You can have multiple layers. Typically there's only a couple of forest (top level) sysadmins that specifically control it.
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All way too much work. Unless you have skilled operators of said equipment, they'll either break on the first attempt to operate it, or it will eventually succumb to lack of maintenance/replacement parts. It's not like it's been used any way, which it makes it all the more likely to fail they first time they try to use it.
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All way too much work. Unless you have skilled operators of said equipment, they'll either break on the first attempt to operate it, or it will eventually succumb to lack of maintenance/replacement parts. It's not like it's been used any way, which it makes it all the more likely to fail they first time they try to use it.
http://www.thedrive.com/news/9642/gm-fires-2700-employees-by-text-message-after-venezuelan-plant-seizure
They fired everyone via bulk SMS texts, sent electronic payments, disabled all accounts and the executives left the country. Clorox did the same in 2014. The VZ government will have to crack the local servers and whatnot to get the machinery up and running. It's not impossible to do, just very very complicated.
It's not WW2, most high end equipment is on the network and part of an organized workflow.
President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro says the seizure is not permanent and is urging GM to come back. Labor Minister Francisco Torrealba added, "To the current General Motors president of Venezuela, Jose Cavaileri: You come here, show your face and share with us the options to restore normality."
Without the White House pressuring GM, I sincerely doubt that will happen.
I've written up those kinds of plans before. At previous companies, we had operations in sketchy countries. Favorite one was where we had a satellite modem hooked up to the network in case the locals cut internet/phone line to send the AD sync to disable everything. Maybe wipe the data, maybe not.
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President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro says the seizure is not permanent and is urging GM to come back. Labor Minister Francisco Torrealba added, "To the current General Motors president of Venezuela, Jose Cavaileri: You come here, show your face and share with us the options to restore normality."
"Come back and play ball with us Mr Reardon, and do as we say, and there will be no more problems."
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"Come back and play ball with us Mr Reardon, and do as we say, and there will be no more problems."
I always hated Atlas Shrugged on literary grounds. It was overly long, the characters were one dimensional (not just the villains either), it assigned too competency to too few people, etc. With some ruthless editing and a bit more character development, it had potential to be a great book.
But ye fluffy gods, the VZ are acting like it is an instruction manual.
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I always hated Atlas Shrugged on literary grounds. It was overly long, the characters were one dimensional (not just the villains either), it assigned too competency to too few people, etc. With some ruthless editing and a bit more character development, it had potential to be a great book.
But ye fluffy gods, the VZ are acting like it is an instruction manual.
I just wanted to highlight your most correct point. I always tell people to feel free to skip 20 or more pages anytime a main character starts speechifying.
As an author, Ms. Rand was not all that great. As a prophet/judge of her enemies... she's frighteningly competent.
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I always tell people to feel free to skip 20 or more pages anytime a main character starts speechifying.
That's the only way I made it through the book. Otherwise I'd read a page, fall asleep for 20 minutes, repeat.
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In Ms. Rand's defense , she was a playwright moreso than an author. Hence the excess verbiage as she was giving directorial instructions, in addition to writing a story.
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3547050/posts
Looks like the vz.gov is making noises about trucking the population out to the farms to grow and harvest food.
They look about to go "full-Nork" and nobody told them "You never go full-Nork".
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3547050/posts
Looks like the vz.gov is making noises about trucking the population out to the farms to grow and harvest food.
They look about to go "full-Nork" and nobody told them "You never go full-Nork".
Democratic Socialism. They voted for it. They deserve to get it good and hard.
The only problem is that no one is learning from their example, except people who already knew this would be the outcome.
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3547050/posts
Looks like the vz.gov is making noises about trucking the population out to the farms to grow and harvest food.
They look about to go "full-Nork" and nobody told them "You never go full-Nork".
I'm thinking more along the lines of Cambodia. How long until they shoot everyone with a university degree?
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3547050/posts
Looks like the vz.gov is making noises about trucking the population out to the farms to grow and harvest food.
They look about to go "full-Nork" and nobody told them "You never go full-Nork".
That worked so well for Cambodia, too.
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Labor Minister Francisco Torrealba added, "To the current General Motors president of Venezuela, Jose Cavaileri: You come here, show your face and share with us the options to restore normality."
What a quote! ". . . come here, show your face . . . "
Issued by a bureaucrat from a kleptocratic government that imprisons opponents and just seized a factory, THAT is really going to persuade someone to go back!
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The poor are revolting!
Well, of course they are.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the-venezuelan-government-is-beginning-to-lose-the-poor-its-longtime-base/2017/04/28/c562cb86-2b5d-11e7-9081-f5405f56d3e4_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the-venezuelan-government-is-beginning-to-lose-the-poor-its-longtime-base/2017/04/28/c562cb86-2b5d-11e7-9081-f5405f56d3e4_story.html)
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I just wanted to highlight your most correct point. I always tell people to feel free to skip 20 or more pages anytime a main character starts speechifying.
As an author, Ms. Rand was not all that great. As a prophet/judge of her enemies... she's frighteningly competent.
Yes, that. At around 100 pages of carefully chosen text, Atlas Shrugged rocks. Not so much with the bajillion pages of interpersonal relationships and whatnot. I give her a little slack because my understanding is that the book was more of a movie script.
That being said, even though the text is incredibly bloated, it really is required reading just for those salient parts. The rest of the book is an exercise in patience and character building of the reader. =D
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(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FKZeQBtW.jpg&hash=097aeb9bf8966cd0094cc93d928685be51c76083)
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FwQgGpni.jpg&hash=4f04e2c4771bac539e1c36c69302b552f4da02c9)
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F5ZtrNSz.jpg&hash=c8ac79ffe185f0d098363a1dc01a3221605d8e79)
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Taken yesterday.
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fg3zl7VI.jpg&hash=793e53de776a9048e55b5fba64ba6f419b87ea36)
An APC ran over a kid, which folks got photos of but I will decline to post.
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I fear that this is going to go from "Africa" nasty to "Cambodia" nasty before it's over.
As much as I love watching Socialism collapse under it's own weight (again), I feel for the folks that have to die to prove (again) that it doesn't work. And I hope that they manage to put the leaders against a wall before too long.
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(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-84iayUwAAcEsN.jpg)
http://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2017/05/04/as-venezuelas-president-dances-literally-protesters-are-being-set-on-fire-in-the-streets/
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(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-84iayUwAAcEsN.jpg)
Looks like a screenshot from the next Half Life game.
I suspect, however, that it's a self-inflicted molotov-cocktail-gone-wrong situation rather than cops with flamethrowers torching random protestors.
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WSJ: Venezuela is starving
https://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuela-is-starving-1493995317
Holodomor redux?
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I suspect, however, that it's a self-inflicted molotov-cocktail-gone-wrong situation rather than cops with flamethrowers torching random protestors.
I agree. The Venezuelan people need some instruction in how to make and throw a Molotov cocktail. Hint: Do NOT splash gasoline on yourself or your clothing.
How not to do it:
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F5ZtrNSz.jpg&hash=c8ac79ffe185f0d098363a1dc01a3221605d8e79)
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http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/05/09/venezuelans-new-weapon-against-riot-police-poopootov-cocktails.html
just when you thought it couldn't get any shittier ...
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http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/05/09/venezuelans-new-weapon-against-riot-police-poopootov-cocktails.html
just when you thought it couldn't get any shittier ...
Mix poop w/ a flammable liquid and light when thrown.